Jones Grant, Herrmann Felipe, Nock Matthew K
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
JMIR Form Res. 2023 Aug 16;7:e49284. doi: 10.2196/49284.
Race-based anxiety is a substantial health issue for the Black community. Although mindfulness interventions have demonstrated efficacy for alleviating anxiety, three central barriers prevent Black Americans from accessing existing mindfulness treatments: high costs, excessive time commitments, and limited cultural relevance. There is a need for novel mindfulness interventions for the Black community that can overcome these barriers.
The goal of this web-based study was to examine the preliminary efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of a novel digital music-based mindfulness intervention for middle-to-low-income Black Americans with elevated race-based anxiety.
This study used a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design (n=5). The intervention featured contributions from Lama Rod Owens (a world-renowned meditation teacher and LA Times best-selling author) and Terry Edmonds (the former chief speechwriter for President Bill Clinton). We examined the effect of the intervention on state anxiety and assessed its feasibility and acceptability using quantitative and qualitative measures.
Results revealed that administration of the intervention led to significant decreases in state anxiety (Tau-U range -0.75 to -0.38; P values<.001). Virtually all feasibility and acceptability metrics were high (ie, the average likelihood of recommending the intervention was 98 out of 100).
This study offers preliminary evidence that a digital music-based mindfulness intervention can decrease race-based anxiety in Black Americans. Future research is needed to replicate these results, test whether the intervention can elicit lasting changes in anxiety, assess mechanisms of change, and explore the efficacy of the intervention in real-world contexts.
基于种族的焦虑对黑人社区来说是一个重大的健康问题。尽管正念干预已被证明对缓解焦虑有效，但有三个主要障碍阻碍了美国黑人获得现有的正念治疗：成本高昂、时间投入过多以及文化相关性有限。需要为黑人社区开发新的正念干预措施来克服这些障碍。
这项基于网络的研究旨在检验一种新型的基于数字音乐的正念干预措施对中低收入且基于种族的焦虑水平较高的美国黑人的初步疗效、可行性和可接受性。
本研究采用非同期多基线设计（n = 5）。该干预由洛德·欧文斯喇嘛（一位世界知名的冥想导师和《洛杉矶时报》畅销书作者）和特里·埃德蒙兹（前总统比尔·克林顿的首席演讲稿撰写人）参与贡献。我们研究了该干预对状态焦虑的影响，并使用定量和定性方法评估其可行性和可接受性。
结果显示，实施该干预导致状态焦虑显著降低（Tau-U范围为-0.75至-0.38；P值<.001）。几乎所有的可行性和可接受性指标都很高（即推荐该干预的平均可能性为100分中的98分）。
本研究提供了初步证据，表明基于数字音乐的正念干预可以降低美国黑人基于种族的焦虑。未来需要进行研究以重复这些结果，测试该干预是否能引发焦虑的持久变化，评估变化机制，并探索该干预在现实环境中的疗效。
